5 years late
by toe walker
Summary: This is a story about a girl. A normal, though quite intelligent, girl. Well at least that is what everyone thinks for the first 15 years of her life. Until a strange man with the longest beard ever comes to meat her. Who is he? And what is she? Takes place during TOotP. Hinny, Romionie. Don't read if you don't like, no flames, but constructive criticism is welcome. Enjoy! :-)
1. Chapter 1

I trudge through the halls of my school with my head down. The Academy for Gifted but Non-privileged Young Woman (AGNYW) is just like the name suggests; a school for smart girls with problems. Like my roommate, Lillian; her mom has cancer and her family can't afford a school for her. Or another girl named Marissa; her mom died and her dad is abusive and in jail. Notice I didn't call either of them my friends. That's a key point in my life. It's because I don't have any. I don't think that it is because people dislike me. In fact, I was great friends with most of the people here up until I turned 11. Then weird things started happening to me and the people around me… I can never explain them afterwards so people stay away from me now, eventually, they grew to dislike me.

What happened to me to get me stuck in this stupid school? Oh, nothing much, just the fact that both of my parents died when I was 3 and I was living on the streets up until I was 7. Note the sarcasm. I have been here longer than most. I came here just a few weeks after the government pulled me off the street, when they realized that me being on the streets for so long made me pick up things. I listened in on conversations and knew just about anything there was to know about government and politics. But it wasn't until I walked in on parliament and resolved an issue that had been on debate for months did they actually send me to this school for geniuses. **(I know nothing about the British system for law… so bear with me, it will be important later) **you could say that it is quite a selective school.

Another thing that is beneficial to me personally is that, due to the nature of the school and the students that it teaches, you can stay in the dorms all summer with a few classes here and there. To me and some kids with abusive parents, that could mean life or death so I try to be grateful. Of course, that's a bit hard when all of the teachers hate my guts for something that maybe I wanted to do, but I certainly did not.

Oh goodness, I'm getting ahead of myself aren't I. my name is Arabella Schmidt, and call me anything other than Arabella, and I will want to break your arm. And with me, you never know what could happen after that. I guess I'm pretty; I've got blonde hair, as straight as a ruler, and light blue eyes. Just how you would imagine a little German girl whose parent's immigrated to England to be. I'm small for my age; people think I'm 10 when I'm really 15, and petite. But really, I'm quite athletic. It's just hidden by the fact that I'm still trying to catch up on my weight from when I was 7.

Now, back to business. As I said, I was trudging through the halls of AGNYW, to go to the Headmistress' office. I don't know why she called me there on the last day before summer holidays but I don't think it's to give me the best student of the year award. People were smirking at me from either side of the hall. Apparently they thought I would be expelled and they were exited.

"Ah, Miss Schmidt, what a pleasure to meet you." Said a voice from just to my left. I turned abruptly and saw one of the strangest men I have ever seen. He was wearing an emerald green cloak and had white hair and beard long enough to tuck into his belt. His nose looked broken as if it had been broken several times and his blue eyes shined behind half-moon spectacles.

"My name is Professor Dumbledore. I am here to talk to you about a school that you might consider transferring to." Ah. One of these visits. I've had a few. This school advertises the achievements of its students so that it can get rid of them as fast as they can. People hear of my achievements with Parliament want to train me up to be a robot that does nothing but study all the time at THEIR school. Well I'm sorry, but that is not me.

"I know you must have had many requests that have started much like this, but mine is focused on a different set of talents of yours." Here we go. Now he is going to ask me to go out into the garden with him.

"Would you come out into the garden with me Miss Schmidt?" See? I told you so.

Once we reached the garden, he turned to me and said something I was not expecting. Nope, not in the slightest. "You are a witch." I just stared blankly at him for a moment, not sure if he was crazy or just being mean. Maybe I misheard him?

"What? Isn't this the part when you are supposed to tell me how amazing I did in parliament when I was seven?" I asked, genuinely confused. I'm a girl who loves patterns, and this pattern just broke. Or else I just misheard him? I thought I had pretty good ears.

He laughed. "No, I'm afraid that my school is not as interested in those talents, they are more interested in your inherited talents. Particularly the magical ones. You were supposed to get a letter regarding this 5 years ago, but there were some, ah, complications, chiefly regarding your Headmistress and a broom going after the messenger owl."

I remembered that day. There had been a lot of screaming from the other girls as a Tawny owl swooped into the front window, straight for the breakfast table. I had thought it was rather beautiful, but the Head had swatted it outside with a broom before I could say anything. This was still crazy though. Did he say magical talents? No that can't be correct he must have meant lawful talents?

"Unfortunately, that problem was overlooked as we had a more serious issue getting letters to a boy named Harry Potter that year. I had completely forgotten about you up until I was at a hearing the other day and had an epiphany. I am rather old you know."

My shield to ward off potential other schools was melting and I heard myself saying, "I'll come, but what about money? I don't have any to pay for books or tuition."

"Oh that will not be a problem. Your parents left you a fund of money that you could use for your schooling funds before you inherit the full vault of money at Gringots when you become of age. I have already bought you all of the books you will need, along with all of the ones from previous years and a few extra you might want to read for fun." He snapped his fingers and a pile of books appeared beside me. "I also got you all other supplies you may need and a good broomstick." He snapped his fingers again and various other things appeared beside me. There should be plenty left in your account to last you two more years.

"The last thing you will need is a wand, and seeing that the train leaves tomorrow at 11, we don't have enough time to go to London and buy one, so I took the liberty of bringing the wand maker here along with a few of his finest wands for you to try out. Olivander!"

I was so confused! A wand? Like a bibity bobity boo wand? But I did not have time to ask all of the questions swimming in my head because with a loud crack, a frail old wizard with some long boxes piled in his arms appeared in a bed of roses. "Yes, yes. Let's try this one here for you missy!" he said in a creepy, rasping voice, and then dropped all of the boxes but one and ran towards me, opening the box on the way. He handed me a stick. "Well give it a wave!" he said. I doubtfully waved the stick at him. There was a shock and suddenly Mr. Olivander's hair was sticking straight up in the air. I must say it was pretty funny to see him grin and say, "No! Let's try another one shall we?" but that didn't stop the fact that I was freaking out that ELECTRICITY JUST CAME OUT OF A BLOODY STICK!

Eventually, 2 wands later, a bed of roses in flames, and Professor Dumbledore's glasses broken, he handed me a wand made of soft brown wood with a carving of a dove as the handle. As soon as I held it, it just felt… right. I don't know how to explain it, but when I waved this wand, suddenly all of the things that the other wands had done, fixed themselves. And it was the most exhilarating feeling I had ever felt.

"Ah, I should have known, Cherry, Pegasus wing feather, 11 inches long, good for charms. It's perfect." With those words he suddenly left. This was so crazy.

"Let's go tell your headmistress that we will be leaving to go to Hogwarts shortly. You will be having extra lessons with me seeing as you are the age of at 5th year but have yet to master the basics. I will leave you at a hotel walking distance away from King's Cross station. Your ticket is in your suitcase. You should be on the train by 11am sharp on September 1st which is tomorrow."

We walked in, told the headmistress we were leaving, grabbed a suitcase that was already packed, strangely, and then Dumbledore turned on the spot, and I was alone in a hotel room with a key to my room and a bit of money in one pocket, some strange gold, silver, and bronze coins in the other, and a million questions in my head.

I was alone.

**Whoa! I know what a bunch of my readers are probably thinking. How many stories do you want to try to keep up with! You are going to die from overload! But in my defense, I wanted to post this one today because… bum bah buuuuuum! It's my birthday! I'm turning 14 people! I have been a teenager for a whole year already! And seeing as September 1****st**** is a very important day in the Harry Potter universe, I figured, why not?**

**This chapter was supposed to come out very rushed. It was meant to be as confusing as Arabella felt at this time. It will be less rushed in the future. On the bright side, it was waaaaay long for my standards! 1688 words without this A/N! I'm excited! Usually I have to struggle to get 1000! And I don't always manage that! Then again… I did type this on an actual computer instead of my phone this time…: P I'm praying for a laptop! Please, please, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Not as much response to this story… but that is A-Okay, because I know that this is a much more popular fandom so it is harder for people to come across your stories by chance. I ended up not getting a laptop for my birthday, but I do now have access to the family laptop for "homework" reasons at all hours of the day if I need it, soooo I will probably update more frequently than the beginnings of my other stories.**

**Question: should I start putting some of my poetry up at the beginnings of some of my chapters? Because I am too lazy to post on fiction press…. And I will get more response here anyway, so… answer in review or pm?**

**I just wish I owned this.**

I did not sleep at all last night. I was too busy going through textbook after textbook; I ended up reading all of them cover to cover. I found them interesting because I knew that at whatever school this was, somebody would expect me to know everything about this 'wizarding' world, weather I believed in it or not. (I am still not quite sure about it)

As I was rereading Defensive Magical Theory I realized that it was already 8:30 in the morning and that if I wanted to get to Kings Cross early, I would have to actually get up, shower, and all of that other good stuff that all civilized people do but that toe walker does not want to bore all of her readers with.

Anyway, after changing into something that I can easily change into my new robes from, I made my way to the station. As I was examining my ticket, I realized that it said platform 9 and ¾. As far as I know, there is no platform 9 and ¾… at ANY train station.

I stood in front of platforms 9 and 10, staring at the barrier, until I saw a few people casually lean against it, and disappear! So I walked up to a few others as they were doing the same thing, and asked a bushy haired girl if she had any idea how to get onto platform 9 and 3/4. She nodded and gestured for me to join them in leaning on the wall, and I seemed to slide through with no problems.

I stared at the station in front of me. It had a huge red train with steam pouring out of the engine. I smiled and had a strange dejevu(sp?) moment, as if I had seen this station before. But I knew that was not true. I stayed in basically one spot while I was living on the streets and we never came here when I was at school. Plus I doubt we would have gone through a wall to get here!

I loaded all of my stuff onto the train with little difficulty, now just the task of finding somewhere to sit.

I passed a bunch of doors with no empty seats, until I passed one with a blonde dreamy looking girl, a dark haired boy with glasses, a dark haired, but a bit more awkward looking boy holding a plant, and a nice looking red headed girl. There were two seats open so I cracked the door and asked, "Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full." I know, not great persuasion techniques, but I am getting lazy.

They eyed me warily but nodded. I introduced myself, and I learned almost everybody's names, Luna, Neville, and Ginny. The boy with glasses on looked at me suspiciously as if I was a bomb about to explode, but when I did not (big surprise), he said slowly "I'm Harry… Harry… er… Potter" everyone looked at me as if I should know him but I really had no idea who he was and I told them so.

"I don't know who you are so you can relax. And before you ask, I was supposed to start this school five years ago but my letter was misplaced." They all looked at me with relief and then confusion.

Luna broke the ice and said dreamily, "well, why did you not get the letter? Did the owl go to the wrong house?"

"Er, no." I responded, "My headmistress shoed the owl out the window before it had a chance to deliver the letter. Actually, wait. I do know who you are. Dumbledore had a hard time getting your letter to you the same year, so he completely forgot about me up until a hearing a few weeks ago when he had a sudden epiphany."

They looked at me in silence for a moment before a girl with big bushy hair walked in, followed by a boy who was obviously Ginny's brother, both wearing what looked to be prefects badges. "Malfoy is the new prefect!" blurted the red headed boy as he walked through the door.

"Shush Ron!" hissed the bushy haired girl, you are being impolite! Introduce yourself to the new girl!" She smiled at me kindly, "Sorry about him. He is clueless. I'm Hermione Granger, this dunderhead is Ron Weasley." So I was correct, they were siblings.

At that moment a tall, very pale boy slid open the compartment door and sneered.

**I know it is way too short, but it is almost midnight, and I wanted to post this. I do not approve of the Ron/Hermione bashing that a lot of writers are doing. I personally think that they are nice and round characters that are fun to manipulate and make bad things happen to, just to mess with them. I know this has followed the plot so far but it will break away in a short time, I promise, but her appearance cannot have much impacted the plot yet. But it will soon. PROMISE it will be interesting and weird.**

**I have to go now. Early morning tomorrow, your welcome for sacrificing sleep for you guys!**

**R+r**

**-toe**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi all! I just want to clear one thing up real fast. When I said in the last chapter, "so I was correct, they were siblings" in the last chapter, I was referring to Ron and GINNY, not Ron and HERMIONE! No, just… no. especially because I ship them… sorry for any confusion.**

**On a completely different note, I am so sorry for not updating. I have been in a not writing mood recently… witch kind of makes sense if I think about it, because I didn't really like writing before fan fiction and I have been doing so much of it recently that it's kind of hard to keep continually writing because I never did before. Still it is not an excuse and I hope you will forgive me.**

**I don't own anything**

As the sneering boy came in I noted that his hair was slightly slimy but other than that he was quite cute and I could tell he would grow into a very smexy man. **(I… am not going to put them together… but he is so… I'm sorry, just… just go with it)** I shook my head and mentally scolded my author for writing that.

"So I heard that there was a new 5th year in this compartment. I wanted to give them a nice welcome." He said with a less than welcoming smile. I attempted one of my own but from the looks on other people's faces I don't think it worked. Before he turned toward me, he looked at the other people in the compartment. "There seems to be an overpopulation issue in this compartment by two people. I'm afraid that I will be forced to give all of you 2 weeks of detention, lines."

Hermione calmly told him, "We were doing our round Malfoy, like you are right now." He scowled and turned toward me.

He stuck out his hand and I reluctantly took it, "It is nice to meet you, and my name is Draco Malfoy. I know you aren't a pureblood so you will not be in Slytherin house, but I would still like to warn you that if you say around with them," he jerked his head in the general direction of everyone in the compartment, "then you will never have a chance of becoming a respectable wizard" he turned and walked out of the compartment. Hermione and Ron reluctantly left as well and Ron muttered something about Goyle and baboons.

The conversation winded down after that and I zoned out for most of the rest of it, trying to finish the 2nd year transfiguration book again because there were some concepts that I did not quite understand.

"Would you like me to teach you some stuff?" Someone asked suddenly, and I jumped. I turned and saw that Harry was looking at me, his face beet red and his want out.

I smiled, nodded and grabbed the first year transfiguration textbook. He laughs and puts that down, "you really don't want me to be your first transfiguration teacher." He leans over me and grabs the charms book instead. "Now charms, I can do charms." He smiled and opened it up to the first page and immediately started laughing. I looked over at it, even though I had the whole thing memorized, and saw that the spell was Wingardium Leviosa. After he calmed down a bit he looked at my face and said something like "feather, blow up, troll bogeys." And I just shook my head and took out my wand.

I pointed it at the piece of parchment he had put in front of me and concentrated, "Wingardium Leviosa" the paper gave a little shiver but that was it. Harry immediately swooped in and repositioned my wand in my hand, showing me how to wave it correctly so the next time that I did it, ("Wingardium Leviosa") up went the parchment like a bird. By the end of the train ride I had basically mastered half of the spells in the book and successfully eaten 3 chocolate frogs and about 10 sugar quills. (It's straight up sugar with magical properties in the shape of a quill that is freaking awesome!)

When we got off the train I was a bit confused as to what to do. The people that I kind of knew were all going one way, but there was a rather large man who was calling all first years to go with him. I looked over at Harry and he shrugged at me. Suddenly I heard my name being called through the crowd. "Arabella Schmidt! You are coming with me!" squeaked a rather small professor as he pushed though the crowds towards me. I turned towards Harry but he had disappeared.

The man grabbed my hand and I was sucked into darkness and squeezed until I thought my eyes would pop out. Finally air was allowed back into my lungs and I took a deep breath and fell limp onto the floor, only to jump up again at the sight in front of me. Above me was the sky. But it wasn't the sky because I could almost see a ceiling behind it. When I looked away from that I saw 4 long tables with floating candles and so much more that I cannot describe or it would take up a whole book itself.

The small man began to speak in a high, rapid voice. "Professor Dumbledore wanted to get you here before everyone else because of your special case. We are going to sort you first before the 1st years, but after they come in so that they can hear the song from the hat. Then you will join your house and wait while the 1st years are being sorted."

I smiled at him, glad I had read Hogwarts a History because otherwise I would not have understood half of what he had just said.

As the student body began streaming in I stood off to the side of a stool with an old looking hat on it. Once all of them were seated the younger ones began coming in, standing in a clump around the front of the hat who sang a song about holding fast together. **(Not sure if that was really the song that year but whatever.)**

An older woman came to the front and called across the older students, "we have a new arrival in the older classes this year to sort first. Schmidt, Arabella." I walked over to her and she gestured for me to sit down on the stool. I waited for a moment and then flinched when I heard a voice in my head, "well, well, well… a fifth year being sorted, it's been a while since I have done that."

I was wide eyed; I didn't know this was going to happen. I'm not prepared, I thought it would be some kind of test, but I had no idea what to do in this circumstance. The voice chucked, "it's fine, I will not hurt you. Now let me see… I remember your parents! Oh, but I should let someone else tell you their story I suppose." I tried to cut in but the hat had already moved on. "Hmmm… well obviously not Slytherin. Hufflepuff(sp?) wouldn't be bad but… hmm, no I guess not. Ravenclaw or Gryffindor? Equal on both sides for the most part. Ah, I don't really care. GRYFFINDOR!"

**So she is in the lion house. Good for her.**

**Let's all pray for the east coast. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins are in the path of Sandy right now! I'm so scared for them!**

**R+r**

**-toe**


	4. Chapter 4

**Question, my story is called five years late… but was it actually four? I don't really know… she is going into her 5****th**** year but that might be… I don't know, help me out? Math is not my best friend…**

There was some cheering from one of the tables so I assumed that I would be sitting there. I walked over and immediately spotted Harry sitting next to Hermione and Ron, so I veered towards them as the sorting hat started on the first years.

However long it took, I zoned out for most of it, I was quite hungry, and those sugar quills were forever ago…

As soon as the last first year was sorted, (Worchester, Caroline) Professor Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat, all of the older students were looking at him expectantly so I assumed he was going to do something really impressive. All in all I was not incorrect, with a few words, "Tuck in," food suddenly appeared on the tables and she was delighted to see that nobody would be going hungry here today as sometimes happened at AGNYW.

I helped myself to a huge serving of mashed potatoes along with some fried chicken. "Gosh Arabella, how much do you eat?" I heard Harry ask from my right. My mouth was too full to say anything coherently so I just stuck out my tongue at him through my food and went back to eating.

After dinner and dessert, Professor Dumbledore stood up to presumably give a speech but was rather rudely interrupted by a short, toad-like, quite PINK lady. After the first two or three words that came spilling out of her mouth, I had decided that I did not like her I the slightest. She was the kind of person who made you feel about five years old by talking down to you all of the time. I hate people like that.

Finally after her (admittedly boring) speech was over, I turned to my recently acquired friends who had already stared a conversation. Hermione responded to the clueless boys, who had asked what all of her hogwash meant, with "It means that the ministry is going to be interfering at Hogwarts."

I agreed but I was pretty new… "But if she is only the Defense against the dark arts teacher, then she would really only have control over that class, and from the comparison of the new book to the older ones that you had, she is succeeding in screwing up that class, but how would she impact the rest of the school?"

The other three just stared at me as though I was from another planet, Harry finally responded, "as just a DADA teacher, I don't think she could do much without being in Dumbledore's good books, but she is a ministry official and from what I saw at my hearing, pretty high ranking."

I nodded and then looked at him, startled, "Wait, it was your hearing? Dumbledore said he remembered that I existed after a hearing a few days ago, that was yours?"

Hermione answered for him, "He was cleared of all charges of course, the charge was completely ludicrous in my opinion anyway; he was charged with preforming a protective spell outside of school, in front of a muggle. But it states clearly in the…"

Ron had put a hand over her mouth because apparently she was boring him.

"Yes, it was my hearing. I had wondered why Dumbledore had walked out so quickly." Harry said.

The headmaster had just finished his speech and Ron and Hermione had to herd first years to the Gryffindor tower. Harry remembered at the last minute, "HEY! HERMIONE!" she looked over her shoulder at him, "What is the password?" harry asked once he had her attention.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia" she responded and then turned back to her charges.

"Well come on then, I'll show you some shortcuts!" Harry exclaimed as he ran out the door, me close at his heels.

The Gryffindor common room was amazing, cushy armchairs that all looked like they got good heating from the large fireplace that everything else in the room seamed centralized around. Harry was just pointing out his favorite armchair when Hermione and Ron arrived with a heard of eleven year-olds behind them.

Hermione was in the front, talking expressively to them while Ron just kind of hung around the back of the crowd, looking bored.

"The pair of stairs that you see in front of you lead to the dormitories," Hermione was saying, "boys are on the left, girls on the right. I will tell you boys that if you ever try to go into the girls' dormitories, you will be repelled by magic that was around even when the castle was built."

With that she sent them off to bed and turned to us. "How did you get here so fast?"

Harry rolled his eyes and was about to answer when Ron spoke up, "because you took the longest rout here and stopped at every single thing to explain the type of wood used for the frame of some obscure painting or something."

She glared at him and then stormed up the right hand stairs where the girls' dorms are. I decided to follow because all of that food, paired with the fact that I had not slept the night before had made me really tired.

So that is where I am now; staring up at the ceiling, horribly tired but too many thoughts running through my head to go to sleep.

Eventually though, sleep took me as it always does.

**Well it isn't my longest chapter, but I liked it. It was a slow update but I have many excuses for that and you really don't want to hear all of them. (One of them was a failed NaNoWriMo bringing down my spirits since November)**

**I hope you liked this and will answer my question at the top.**

**Read and review because they just make my day.**

**~toe**


End file.
